First off, beautiful looking website. Nice job on the branding.
The question I find my self asking is "what type of person is using this?" "who do I want to connect with?" "why would I want to connect with them?"
You have a bunch of corporate logos, but I don't know what you are implying with them. That people who work there are using Overlap? Why are they using it?
I was happy to find "success stories" in your footer, but clicking on that lets me tell you about my success.
I need/want to hear from your users that they are having success. I want them to tell me why I need overlap.
The more I think about it, the more I am wondering why this is better than LinkedIn, where everyone already is. Sure, I get spam, but that's easy to filter, and I am there filtering it.
I feel like overlap is going to be giving me more spam, and now it's in my inbox, which is precious to me. Why is overlap going to earn a place in my inbox?
I've never understood the Bumble Bizz (which I think failed), but LinkedIn has been quite successful for me.
A matching system for an accelerator seems very different than a more generalized site, which it seems you've built here.
Let me be clear, I'm not saying what you've built isn't valuable, but distribution is the key to getting something off the ground, and a two-sided marketplace, which is what you have, needs a good distribution strategy.
Have you thought about focusing just on the accelerators, incubators to grow overlap, so that when people like me are hearing about it for the first time, I'm not wondering why I would use it, but rather, I know, person X,Y,Z met there, or it was successful in this way. Etc etc.
This feedback is incredible. I am trying to figure out how to niche down instead of being the everything-networking tool to everyone. I like your ideas a lot and have copied them into a doc to sit down and really think about as I identify the direction of the company. Appreciate the time you spent sharing your thoughts.
As an engineer and entrepreneur not residing in the US, the value for me here would be to get into the tech scene without having to be in SV meetups or other events, because it’s obviously very expensive and I’m very busy. The problem I see is there are many people that claim to actually be legit professionals or entrepreneurs but basically just want to spam, so being able to separate that is hard. Manual vetting is important. But my question is, what would such a match look like across countries?
I found it strange that LinkedIn url is required. It did't give me 'we want to make sure you are real' vibes. Instead it gave me 'we're about to collect some data about you' vibes. As an introvert I don't love it.
It's true, LinkedIn is too spammy, which is why I don't have an account. Unfortunately, you didn't advertise that you're just a LinkedIn app until demanding my LinkedIn account halfway through signup. Please don't waste my time.
I’m currently in the middle of my month-long stay in a new and unfamiliar city - and it’s been a challenge to meet new people, especially given how unapproachable we’ve all become in the past few years. Just last night, I was wishing for something like this to exist / looking to build something like it. Seems even more interesting given it’s not local, but a location-focused, less professionally oriented service would also be cool.
Kudos for building this! I’ve just signed up and seems amazing. Hope it delivers upon that expectation.
> especially given how unapproachable we’ve all become in the past few years
Is that... something that happened? Could you elaborate? Anecdotally that was limited to like 2021 if I could even say that, but I would imagine you do feel that in some genuine way and it must vary by region and demographic.
Many posts on HN and other sites discuss the struggles people have meeting new people outside of school or work. People don't want to talk to strangers in bars, cafes or gyms. Everyone wears headphones and looks at their phone on buses and trains and waiting in lines, and socially it's increasingly considered rude, weird or scary to start a conversation with a stranger in these places.
Even going to meetups or social gatherings rarely leads to lasting relationships for most people. On rare occasion people will be genuinely passionate about a hobby and reach enough repeated interactions through that hobby to form adult friendships with peers, but most often people will be too busy with other things in their life and never progress beyond acquaintance seen a few times a year.
> The majority of gen Z people don't feel comfortable asking/being asked out in person because app-based dating is all they've ever known
I didn't really see an indication of that in the article you linked, although it's perhaps plausible. One thing that did stand out to me was the below quote:
> “The divide seems partly generational. In my informal survey process (texting people and bringing up this topic at parties), I found that millennials were more excited about meeting in person. Claire (a pseudonym) said she asked a guy out about a month ago and that it felt “great”. It was a delight to go on a date and not be surprised by what somebody looks like or how it feels to physically be in their presence,” she says. She added that she “will never go back to the apps, no matter how this shakes out”. Christianna, 29, said she’s met the last three people she’s dated in person: one at a house party, another at a concert and another at a queer line dancing event. Several men in their 30s said they barely use the apps and primarily meet people in person."
None of the other things you mention are news to me, unfortunately; anecdotally I do think it's true that many people are lacking in close friends, and for that reason I try my best to be approachable and a friend to a small number of people, but fwiw I'm not Gen Z or in the U.S (Canadian, as negligible as that may be) and don't necessarily feel like the fact people have less close friends compared to some arbitrary historical point necessarily means people have broadly or suddenly become less approachable; I do feel for those who struggle to meet people.
> Even going to meetups or social gatherings rarely leads to lasting relationships for most people. On rare occasion people will be genuinely passionate about a hobby and reach enough repeated interactions through that hobby to form adult friendships with peers, but most often people will be too busy with other things in their life and never progress beyond acquaintance seen a few times a year.
I feel like this can be somewhat true and not true depending on many factors, but generally I do think it's rare that something will lead to long-term interpersonal intimacy, but that embracing that rarity is a good idea rather than not, it means you need to set real time and energy aside to build it up or establish circumstances where eventually you'll hit it off with someone, as an incidental event of you already being somewhere (not being too eager and dropping the hobby when it's either working out or not).
My impression is that in these cases where things haven't worked out longer than a couple months, potential prospects and prospectors are equally likely to not be prepared for what will be required of them in turning a burgeoning friendship into a deeper one, and don't necessarily appreciate the contrast between the effort required back in their hometown or back at their high school, and now out in their new city in their busy life, especially if they struggle to discover with whom they might have chemistry or have little to no ability to carry a conversation (which could very-well be impacted by the earlier Gen Z things you mention). This is a years long project, and it's just pretty hard, because you need to develop trust, have chemistry, be able to navigate and contribute to a conversation, and simultaneously not be too wanting.
Aside from that, imo these struggles are true of previous generations too, but the circumstances were a bit different, such as older millennials, and basically anyone who's bothered to care about expanding their social circle as an adult. Many haven't even given it a passing thought, or they've intentionally isolated themselves in the deep suburbs, or accepted too early that friends just stop being around eventually; any that have left their home town for a different or greater urban area would have had to figure it out at some point, it just might not necessarily have been as common, and they may not have had the same type of horrific manipulation of their attention on a moment-to-moment basis (as you mentioned). None of my older relatives have made new friends as adults on their own that I can think of, they just weren't in a position to need to or accidentally had kids early on and devoted their attention to that. The constraints are a bit different in terms of degree and kind now.
The question that goes unanswered (and will turn people away) if you want to use this site is: how and what data is being used to inform the overlap algo.
I signed up and it feels like my data was just collected, and I'm unsure if it's just the user responses or ingestion of my linkedin text that will be used.
Overall leaves me with a negative experience ... Maybe an email confirmation saying something might be good reassurance.
I like how the terms of service and privacy policy are actually readable. Overall, the site design is really nice. However, I got stuck at "Your account is being set up, check back here later" so, feedback-wise, this is as far as I can go.
Some more feedback. I don't understand what "Skills / Job Functions Importance" and "Industries Importance" are supposed to mean. What should that data impact?
Why is overlap important? Maybe only for collaboration in future. Why can't I unbundle a person's interests and expertise and pick and choose? Isn't that what current recommendation systems supposed to do ?
tried to sign up multiple times with an email on firefox, disabled privacy badger and ublock and still just gives my loading circle after a successful POST to create the account, doesn't redirect the page
i tried to login and it gives me a
"Your account is being set up, check back here later."
It’s for social validation. As in “these companies trust us, so you should too”. Yet there’s never any proof the companies are using the product or to what extent.
> Yet there’s never any proof the companies are using the product or to what extent.
Yeah, as soon as you get a single signup from someone using their work email, you add the logo. Got a @google.com signup? Google logo right on the homepage ;).
I've seen a few places write "used by engineers at" rather than "used by", which is at least accurate and doesn't imply any business relationship with the company (even if most people don't notice the difference).
Just to clarify, no "hate" towards the OP, I hate the game, not the player.
What an infuriating website, popups over everything, the first time it even had some badly sized type into this... with no way to close or move it off half the screen
First off, beautiful looking website. Nice job on the branding.
The question I find my self asking is "what type of person is using this?" "who do I want to connect with?" "why would I want to connect with them?"
You have a bunch of corporate logos, but I don't know what you are implying with them. That people who work there are using Overlap? Why are they using it?
I was happy to find "success stories" in your footer, but clicking on that lets me tell you about my success.
I need/want to hear from your users that they are having success. I want them to tell me why I need overlap.
The more I think about it, the more I am wondering why this is better than LinkedIn, where everyone already is. Sure, I get spam, but that's easy to filter, and I am there filtering it.
I feel like overlap is going to be giving me more spam, and now it's in my inbox, which is precious to me. Why is overlap going to earn a place in my inbox?
I've never understood the Bumble Bizz (which I think failed), but LinkedIn has been quite successful for me.
A matching system for an accelerator seems very different than a more generalized site, which it seems you've built here.
Let me be clear, I'm not saying what you've built isn't valuable, but distribution is the key to getting something off the ground, and a two-sided marketplace, which is what you have, needs a good distribution strategy.
Have you thought about focusing just on the accelerators, incubators to grow overlap, so that when people like me are hearing about it for the first time, I'm not wondering why I would use it, but rather, I know, person X,Y,Z met there, or it was successful in this way. Etc etc.
This feedback is incredible. I am trying to figure out how to niche down instead of being the everything-networking tool to everyone. I like your ideas a lot and have copied them into a doc to sit down and really think about as I identify the direction of the company. Appreciate the time you spent sharing your thoughts.
As an engineer and entrepreneur not residing in the US, the value for me here would be to get into the tech scene without having to be in SV meetups or other events, because it’s obviously very expensive and I’m very busy. The problem I see is there are many people that claim to actually be legit professionals or entrepreneurs but basically just want to spam, so being able to separate that is hard. Manual vetting is important. But my question is, what would such a match look like across countries?
One of the best product feedback comments I've seen on here and I've been lurking for a long time. Nice.
Wow! That's so incredibly kind of you. You've made my day.
I found it strange that LinkedIn url is required. It did't give me 'we want to make sure you are real' vibes. Instead it gave me 'we're about to collect some data about you' vibes. As an introvert I don't love it.
Adding my voice here as another who avoids LinkedIn. Seeing this comment, I won't even bother to check the site though I'm interested.
Yep. And some of us deleted our LinkedIn profiles years ago precisely 'cuz it got spammy. That makes this a non-starter.
Exact point I bailed; the "close account" flow doesn't appear to work either.
Yes especially given apparently this was set up because linkin is too spammy so this is positied as an alt… that still wants linked in.
This is super helpful feedback!
It's true, LinkedIn is too spammy, which is why I don't have an account. Unfortunately, you didn't advertise that you're just a LinkedIn app until demanding my LinkedIn account halfway through signup. Please don't waste my time.
We share this in the match proposal, but the future state I envision using it also as a method for verifying users.
I’m currently in the middle of my month-long stay in a new and unfamiliar city - and it’s been a challenge to meet new people, especially given how unapproachable we’ve all become in the past few years. Just last night, I was wishing for something like this to exist / looking to build something like it. Seems even more interesting given it’s not local, but a location-focused, less professionally oriented service would also be cool.
Kudos for building this! I’ve just signed up and seems amazing. Hope it delivers upon that expectation.
> especially given how unapproachable we’ve all become in the past few years
Is that... something that happened? Could you elaborate? Anecdotally that was limited to like 2021 if I could even say that, but I would imagine you do feel that in some genuine way and it must vary by region and demographic.
Americans today have fewer friends and fewer close friends than historically. The number of men with zero close friends is higher than ever.
The majority of gen Z people don't feel comfortable asking/being asked out in person because app-based dating is all they've ever known (https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gen-z-yearns-pre-digital-160...)
Many posts on HN and other sites discuss the struggles people have meeting new people outside of school or work. People don't want to talk to strangers in bars, cafes or gyms. Everyone wears headphones and looks at their phone on buses and trains and waiting in lines, and socially it's increasingly considered rude, weird or scary to start a conversation with a stranger in these places.
Even going to meetups or social gatherings rarely leads to lasting relationships for most people. On rare occasion people will be genuinely passionate about a hobby and reach enough repeated interactions through that hobby to form adult friendships with peers, but most often people will be too busy with other things in their life and never progress beyond acquaintance seen a few times a year.
> The majority of gen Z people don't feel comfortable asking/being asked out in person because app-based dating is all they've ever known
I didn't really see an indication of that in the article you linked, although it's perhaps plausible. One thing that did stand out to me was the below quote:
> “The divide seems partly generational. In my informal survey process (texting people and bringing up this topic at parties), I found that millennials were more excited about meeting in person. Claire (a pseudonym) said she asked a guy out about a month ago and that it felt “great”. It was a delight to go on a date and not be surprised by what somebody looks like or how it feels to physically be in their presence,” she says. She added that she “will never go back to the apps, no matter how this shakes out”. Christianna, 29, said she’s met the last three people she’s dated in person: one at a house party, another at a concert and another at a queer line dancing event. Several men in their 30s said they barely use the apps and primarily meet people in person."
None of the other things you mention are news to me, unfortunately; anecdotally I do think it's true that many people are lacking in close friends, and for that reason I try my best to be approachable and a friend to a small number of people, but fwiw I'm not Gen Z or in the U.S (Canadian, as negligible as that may be) and don't necessarily feel like the fact people have less close friends compared to some arbitrary historical point necessarily means people have broadly or suddenly become less approachable; I do feel for those who struggle to meet people.
> Even going to meetups or social gatherings rarely leads to lasting relationships for most people. On rare occasion people will be genuinely passionate about a hobby and reach enough repeated interactions through that hobby to form adult friendships with peers, but most often people will be too busy with other things in their life and never progress beyond acquaintance seen a few times a year.
I feel like this can be somewhat true and not true depending on many factors, but generally I do think it's rare that something will lead to long-term interpersonal intimacy, but that embracing that rarity is a good idea rather than not, it means you need to set real time and energy aside to build it up or establish circumstances where eventually you'll hit it off with someone, as an incidental event of you already being somewhere (not being too eager and dropping the hobby when it's either working out or not).
My impression is that in these cases where things haven't worked out longer than a couple months, potential prospects and prospectors are equally likely to not be prepared for what will be required of them in turning a burgeoning friendship into a deeper one, and don't necessarily appreciate the contrast between the effort required back in their hometown or back at their high school, and now out in their new city in their busy life, especially if they struggle to discover with whom they might have chemistry or have little to no ability to carry a conversation (which could very-well be impacted by the earlier Gen Z things you mention). This is a years long project, and it's just pretty hard, because you need to develop trust, have chemistry, be able to navigate and contribute to a conversation, and simultaneously not be too wanting.
Aside from that, imo these struggles are true of previous generations too, but the circumstances were a bit different, such as older millennials, and basically anyone who's bothered to care about expanding their social circle as an adult. Many haven't even given it a passing thought, or they've intentionally isolated themselves in the deep suburbs, or accepted too early that friends just stop being around eventually; any that have left their home town for a different or greater urban area would have had to figure it out at some point, it just might not necessarily have been as common, and they may not have had the same type of horrific manipulation of their attention on a moment-to-moment basis (as you mentioned). None of my older relatives have made new friends as adults on their own that I can think of, they just weren't in a position to need to or accidentally had kids early on and devoted their attention to that. The constraints are a bit different in terms of degree and kind now.
Amazing! Hope we don't let you down!
The question that goes unanswered (and will turn people away) if you want to use this site is: how and what data is being used to inform the overlap algo.
I signed up and it feels like my data was just collected, and I'm unsure if it's just the user responses or ingestion of my linkedin text that will be used.
Overall leaves me with a negative experience ... Maybe an email confirmation saying something might be good reassurance.
I like how the terms of service and privacy policy are actually readable. Overall, the site design is really nice. However, I got stuck at "Your account is being set up, check back here later" so, feedback-wise, this is as far as I can go.
Our servers hit max capacity and profiles are taking a bit longer to get set up. Stay tuned.
Some more feedback. I don't understand what "Skills / Job Functions Importance" and "Industries Importance" are supposed to mean. What should that data impact?
Why is overlap important? Maybe only for collaboration in future. Why can't I unbundle a person's interests and expertise and pick and choose? Isn't that what current recommendation systems supposed to do ?
Sign up using email + password didn’t work. Complained about missing ‘reCaptcha’, but there was no captcha in the page :(
Strange. What browser and device?
Mac. Firefox
There was a Networking focused on HackerNews users, targeting similar demographics. I still get emails once a while from there. https://findkismet.com
This looks very cool!
Will this work for any type of job networking or is it just for tech people?
All types, although we are finding high interest in this tool from folks in tech
I dont get what the point of this is. What do i get out of it?
tried to sign up multiple times with an email on firefox, disabled privacy badger and ublock and still just gives my loading circle after a successful POST to create the account, doesn't redirect the page
i tried to login and it gives me a
"Your account is being set up, check back here later."
and a prompt to change my password
what are those 4 icons of google, amazon, airbnbn, openai on landing page for? I never understood why people are doing this.
It’s for social validation. As in “these companies trust us, so you should too”. Yet there’s never any proof the companies are using the product or to what extent.
> Yet there’s never any proof the companies are using the product or to what extent.
Yeah, as soon as you get a single signup from someone using their work email, you add the logo. Got a @google.com signup? Google logo right on the homepage ;).
I've seen a few places write "used by engineers at" rather than "used by", which is at least accurate and doesn't imply any business relationship with the company (even if most people don't notice the difference).
Just to clarify, no "hate" towards the OP, I hate the game, not the player.
> I hate the game, not the player.
Games only exist while someone plays them, so every player is complicit in its existence.
“A lot of other companies are unethical so I am too” is not an excuse.
excited to try this out! am definitely in your target market
What an infuriating website, popups over everything, the first time it even had some badly sized type into this... with no way to close or move it off half the screen
I wonder if in a similar spirit the apply to YC form can be used to match first time founders and VCs outside of YC.
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